Mixing as a bass player always keeps my guitar tracks lower in the mix, my mixes still suck but at least nobody notices my shitty guitar playing. WIN 🎉
Fun story, as a guitar player, I find myself keeping the bass almost as loud (if not a bit louder) than the guitars in the mix... it makes the chugging parts sound fantastic imo...
Number 4 is so true, that it’s bizarre how I got better mixes by simply sleeping and waking up on the next day with a fresh mind. Awesome video, as always, Glenn.
Glen, yes I am a guitar player. I am old. 63. I finally can record at home inexpensively. Thank you for all your help. What helps mixing my guitar? Marshall Silver Jubilee plugin that came with my Focusrite. I can see why you preach re amping. I record with “my sound” and then adjust settings on play back to make it sit well in the mix. Hell, I can even change the amp plugin. IRs, whatever. Now I don’t use real drums. They are from software I have but the bass and any keys are me. What great fun this is and thanks again for your help.
The golden rule I was taught doing FOH mixing was that if you were also musician, usually the guitar player, you have a bias for that instrument, so mix it to your liking, and then dial those guitars down a notch below what you would have liked. And I was taught that by a soundguy who was also a bass player. An exception to Rule No. 2.
Absolutely! I play guitar, bass, and drums, and that’s probably why bands are always happy. There’s a trust when you understand their fears and desires.
As a bass player once I first started mixing my own stuff forever and a half ago I had to tell myself I’m not Rex Brown, I’m not Steve Harris, I’m not Frank Bello, not everyone needs to hear me front and centre 😂 Polishing up my guitar and drumming gave me a better respect for mixing
Taking a break is actually a good advice. I was mixing a song for a band we had in covid times, I think I spent like 3 or 4 hours working on the song, cause after recording it, I jumped to mixing and mastering, and when I processed everything, according to me, it was an awesome mix, but when I showed it to the band members, they started pointing stuff like the compression was killing the mix, some parts were louder and then the compression hit it hard to lower the sound. I was irritated with the comments, to be honest, to the point that I was gonna send the stems to the other guys criticizing my work, but then I calmed down, slept my respective 8 hours, then checked the mix... guess what? I had to redo the whole mix, cause even in the EQ I messed it up. After that embarrassing moment, I learned to take breaks so I could do a better job mixing the songs.
And strangely, you spend WAY less time overall with mixing! One aspect of having autism as I do is this dogged determination to finish the project RIGHT NOW! So I have to force myself to take that break. One marker I use is how angry I get at not getting the right sound, either with an instrument or in the overall mix. Even a half-hour break clears the mind.
I only started mixing the last few months, and the more I'm doing it the more I'm realising I make music I wouldn't listen to which is giving me serious pause for thought. I was not expecting this to be the outcome but it's given an insight I'd have never gleaned otherwise. I highly recommend people do it just to let themselves truly become a listener of their work
I don't do metal, as my area is more synth based, but one of the biggest hurdles I had was indeed with the EQ overuse. It's similar to when you first start out and make the mistake of pushing too much volume on a channel when you want to hear it ending up with a mess. Because the natural inclination is to add more until it resolves, when that's often the worst with audio. It can't be over emphasised that turning off the EQ and running the mix, then adding it bit by bit on the fly is a great way of gradually getting it right. One thing I normally do when using a drum machine (such as the Elektron Model:Samples) is bang in my rhythm track, get it feeling right, and when it comes to time to add it to the mix I start with just the bass drum, and add each part going up through the range, EQing on the fly to make them stand out individually. Of course you need to be careful not to have it so that it swamps everything else in your mix, but it's for me by far the quickest route to get up and running.
I've recently learned there are quite a few musicians from more extreme metal subgenres (specifically black metal) that also love and even produce synth music. Turns out, metal composition works really well with synths in the same way that classical compositions work with metal instrumentation. I recently subscribed to a someone by the name of BLAIDD here on UA-cam who makes synthwave covers of metal tracks. You should check him out. Might be right up your alley.
@@trajectoryunown You're right - there's often crossovers as that's one major I watch Glenn. It always pays to get as broad a base as you can. And thanks for the recommendation but no thanks. I truly cannot stand metal or anything like that. I'm more for classic rock and British indie music as I'm an old git.
@@MartonKovac-Tikmajer-xk1qh I don't need to as I use hardware. I don't particularly like using software. Not accessible enough for me, plus it ain't what I'm used to.
@7:55 Yes, that sound like "ass" to me. Set up: High end sound card into high end Logitec 5.1 with Dolby turned on. But, your mileage may vary and I have crap ears from 30 years in industry.
Ironically the main complaint I had about my song "Torn Apart" was that it was too short at a mere 2 min 18, I might be okay on that point. I know on this one the drums are lower in the mix, however that was a deliberate choice. Great video as always
On format limiting run times. Do you have any thoughts on setting limits on yourself, to boost creativity? limits on track count or releasing a track a month etc.?
1. Waves has an abbey road headphone sim that sounds great. Worth a listen. 2. Your vocalist is key. Bad vocals, buried vocals, thin vocals, nonsensical lyrics, and you can have the heaviest riff in the world. No one cares. 3. When i mix vocals, i make their volume generally the same level as the snare hit. 4. AUTOMATE….. if your rhythms are the same volume throughout your guitar solos; you’re gonna have a fight on your hands. 1-2db is all you need. 5. Bass….bass….bass… you want your guitars to sound heavier? Burn your copy of …and justice for all, and get a great bass tone. 6. Songwriters!! Look into pond5. Consider writing stock music. Max 2 minute songs, that teach you to get to the point in 8 bars. It will do wonders for your songwriting, riff writing, and composition. I try to do a 0-day challenge: write as many 2 minutes tracks as i can, one a day, for 30 days. Post em all to pond5, sell them for 5 bucks each. Sales don’t matter. It’s the challenge of writing as many riffs, beats, and Melodie’s in as many genres you can, as fast as possible in 30 days. You’ll love the challenge. It will improve your mixes. It will teach you to cut the needlessness from your songs. And, usually, some of those riffs will be expanded into full length tracks! 7. Headphones. If you cannot use speakers; i can’t due to the constraints of my workspace- get GOOD, flat response headphones. My favorite closed back are the audio technica ATH40’s. My go to for open backs are the AT 770’s. I use both when mixing, because they offer different plus and minus’s. Cheers to all, and see your mixes on the livestream mix show soon!!! AD
@TwistedMetalMinion thanks! I have to give credit to Glenn, however. I chased bass sims for years. CLA bass, tone knob, parallax, you name it. His bass plug in simply works great, every time. Also, his mix reviews took my mixes in much better direction, with his advice, and the tips from his community… i always suggest sending in a track- it’s made a huge difference for the better!
I cannot like these bits of advice enough! I need to print them off, I like them so much! I had never thought to roughly match the vocal levels with the snare. Both are really the center of cohesiveness.
Great tip about EQ'ing in the full mix and keeping it minimal. I am probably guilty of a lot of what you said in that segment. *Sigh* I'll have to move onto making different mistakes!
Hey Glenn. In my case you are absolutely right about guitar players making horrible mixes. I'm a guitar player but years ago I decided to quit the band life to build my own non-pro tiny home studio so I could record and master my own home-made music. I've finally managed to get the mixing gear that I wanted and needed to reach that goal including musical instruments such as a drum-set, synth and a bass guitar. In my quest to become a descent self-educated mixer, I've bumped into several issues. The most frustrating thing was that most tracks sounded awful on other devices and honestly...I couldn't get my head around this. So, Yeah....Turns out that I was dramatically over-EQ-ing every single instrument (especially guitars) in solo mode which fucked-up the frequencies of the total mix. Fortunately for me I stranded here on your channel a while ago and since then things started to get better. I'm not there yet at all but your believes, sharings and advises are a blast and golden. A big thank you and shout out to you, man! Love your (re)presentation and insights of great things that really matter in this business. Greetings, John from the Netherlands.
Great video, Glenn. It's cool to see you trying out the Dear VR stuff. I have been curious of what you would think of solutions like that now that they're becoming more common. I'm sure it's not a replacement for actual monitors in a mix room but they always struck me as a decent alternative for situations where regular monitors weren't an option. Keep it up.
Spot On! This is all so true, these headphones look great, I am using a sennheiser pair now which are great for tracking, but these look great for mixing, will definately check them out!
"No man I don't want the mix to fool people! Everything has to sound great on its own!"...then they complain they can't tell the bass drum, bass and low end of the guitar apart from each other.
Playing in bands for decades, and having to set up and run the live band sound for all that time, helped me in recording live bands. The thing I learned most, is, "All things in moderation!" Don't over-do things. Start the sound small and grow it. Don't start the sound big and try backing it down. Less is more. Trend towards turning EQ frequencies down, not up. Make sure you here the vocals first, and add everything else from there. And, of course, make sure the musicians can hear themselves and have a good monitor mix. Doing this alone will win you many musician friends!
10:48 --- That is the hardest / most difficult thing to do... rural US life, I was taught that you get up with chickens. Breaks are for wimps. Naps are for Sunday afternoons. Then Military life - only lazy people nap, don't get caught napping... you're permitted four hours of sleep, no one promised that it would be four consecutive hours... then civilian life -- only lazy people sleep... if you aren't putting in 16 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week... you're just lazy... you deserve to be poor. I'm in 50's and my body is falling apart but I feel guilty closing my eyes before 9 pm because there is something ALWAYS that must be done.
Haha. I love videos like this. You can instantly spot who it's pi55ed off in the comments. Been mixing since about 2012 now and I'm a guitarist. You can tell such huge differences in mentality by listening to them between then and now. I guess that is the entire point. If you're not putting on your "producer" hat and youre only going to mix with guitar in mind, never going to sound good. I'd argue that a well thought out mix where the guitars arent the sole focus actually makes the guitars sound better. Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.
No 2 is so true. I’m relatively new to mixing, but EVERY TIME I start getting a mix close to being finished I end up needing to take off EQs that I did early on when mixing that track. Especially if I spend a couple days away from it. I’ll go back and see these wild EQ moves on the vocals or guitars that just puzzle me, bypass the EQ plugin, and suddenly it all sounds a little better and maybe only needed a 3db boost in the highs or 2db cut in the lower mids or just a db of volume. I just finished mixing an EP for a band I recorded and half the vocal tracks, and a lot of the guitars, ended up being basically flat in the final mix. Turns out all that work I did in the tracking stages paid off and I didn’t need to fix as much as I thought I did, and there’s no rule that says you need to EQ everything.
Like a number of other commenters, I, too have that 'I just can't walk away from this until it's solved' OCD BS. It can be torture, and training yourself to step back (generally overcoming the fear of the whole 'I've gotta restart this thing' can be a mixed bag at best. I try to time my work around doing some exercise that clears my head - lifting, cardio, jiu-jitsu, or hey, getting some practice in on another instrument (keyboard, kit, bass, etc). Not always successful, because I know something else will come up (generally called life) to interrupt what I'm working on. So sometimes the OCD is part of the fear of 'will I be able to get back to it with the intent in my mind before the pause?''. Sometimes the frustration fuels a creative moment, other times it crushes any semblance of it. What I know Glenn is that I watch your show for inspiration, ideas, and plenty of sarcasm (you get my full praise for adding anything Curb in your shows!). That's what really helps it all,: being able to sling the snark and cope with as much humor as can be piled on to dissipate some of those dark clouds. This is what I appreciate about you. Now to go back and work on my shitty pinch harmonics :). #isuckatmyjob
I love that the Sennheiser headphones come with a multi environment listening capability. I wish my audio-technicia r70x reference headphones came with something like that. You make the best mix using all environments and it's going to work.
very true, but it even goes back to the arrangement and sound choices for me , I think the hardest thing for me as a guitarist learning to produce was I spent years playing guitar by my self so I would try to make it sounds as big and full as possible . So when I record a guitar part to drums when starting to produce, I had essential used up most of the frequency space in a mix with one instrument and trying to add more parts it just got more and more cluttered , looking at the tracks of great songs really opened my eyes to the fact that most instruments parts are sparse and underwhelming on their own but collective you get a full sound .
Hi Glenn! I'm struggling with aliasing problems on my mix. I recorded with ampsims and a bit rate of 44.1khz. Some friends told me to re-record at a higher sample rate, but I don't know how much higher. Is 48khz enough to deal with ampsims or I should go with 88.2khz? Best regards!
I've actually had the opposite problem. Being the guitar player, knowing all the guitar parts and being so "used to it" and excited about recording, my older mixes all suffer from having the guitars too LOW in volume. I was so excited to hear the drums, vocals and even bass that I let my guitar tracks take the back seat. Making my mixes sound thin, weak, "missing something". I was guilty of the same bias and it still resulted in a mix where the guitars weren't properly leveled.
So help me out here. I make all my music on analog tape. I just got my first Neve mixer and i’m super excited about it! My mixes sound awesome, but… I mix on regular headphones and of course bounce between those and my car. There are a couple of reasons why I have to mix this way. Number one, I still live with my parents, and I usually record on weekends and finish my mixes at night after work throughout the week, so blasting music at 1 Am is definitely not possible. Number two, I spent all of the money I set aside for music purchases this year on the Neve, I’ve never even thought about proper monitoring. So… speaker systems or even a good set of mixing headphones are out of the picture for now. Is there any way I can make my Beats brand headphones work for me a bit better? Thanks!
My biggest issue is that as vocalist and guitar player, I overcompensate on trying to NOT over emphasize them in the mix that I end up making the drums, bass, and ambience/keys way too loud, instead. This after years of making the guitar and vocals way too prominent, as Glenn said. I also had a habit of mixing on $20 sony headphones or cheap logitech speakers. Now I use a pair of flat response open back headphones or proper studio monitors.
I only use solo for editing now and finding resonances and everything sounds better now that I do everything in context. Who would have thought that ha!
Hey good on you man, you've restored my faith that the over the top reaction to things is just part of the show. Good to see you're still open to trying new things. There are certainly cheaper options for open back headphones that still hold up (Philips SHP9600) It really is incredible that just removing the cover on the back of headphones could make such a difference, I can see why you probably dismissed it as just another "it's in the pickups bro" argument. 🤘😈👍
7:53 beyerdynamic has a free VST that does a similar "room emulation". Would love it if Glenn does a comparison between that and the Steinberg paid product
You ever think of comparing bridge types? We know pickups don’t matter but what about if there’s a strat style bridge, or a Jazzmaster style bridge, or a stop bar, or a tunomatic or a mastery on the jazz master style bridge? I’ve seen this video of this guy Aaron Rash comparing a Gotoh tune o matic to the stock bridge on a vintage fender mustang, and it sounds like the gotoh holds the bass notes out more but it may just be that guitar player mind of “Oh it looks different it must sound different”
I still go buy a format for the most part when songwriting with intro verse chorus maybe there's a pre-chorus back to intro verse chorus bridge chirus ending. However I will switch it up and do different things like play two major hooks and make that the whole song. Of course I will keep that song that has only two major hooks kind of minimal in length. I have my guitar tuned to e standard but then drop the e down to a d so getting a song to be heavy and still tuned up that high is pretty fun I actually like it better. There's solos and some songs and some songs there's not it just depends on what I feel like the song is asking for or needs
Honestly, the best advice ive used to check my guitar-player bias is mixing a track in mono to check level balances. It really shows whats too loud. If it sounds good in mono, itll usually sound good in stereo
EQing advice is excellent! I use Mixbus32C for my mixes and the built-in 32C channel strips make it so easy to EQ, compress, etc on the fly while the mix is going.
This guy speaks truth ... Its exactly what I hear too, and pushes me away from metal music and when i was young i listened only too metal .. At least almost every album i buyed was metal like Kreator and Slayer and Entombed and Benediction etc etc .. Those where great because you could here what they sing and they didnt use timestamps in studion on drum (Time Correction) .. That last thing is the most anoying to make the drum unhuman .. You destroy your mix with that because it sounds not raw and hard anymore but too polished .. These days i listen too unknown bands and not metal but more alternative rock music. And most of the metal vocal guys and womans are lame too because of the same thing, go sing instead of being dependend on FX Tip: Buy a Boss Katana 100 or a Kemper and you dont need Amp VST anymore and you have no latency if you use the line out or a microphone or even together at once .. Why this is a tip ? - You will make the sound on your amp so you dont have to use FX on guitar in your DAW if you do it the right way, this will save you a lot of mixing time .. And use a quality microphone like a Shure Beta 58A for voice and the SM57 for your cabinet (Cheap option) or the Neuman TL 102 but thats an expensive one around 575 dollar but its good very good
Thanks for all the great advice over the years, Glenn. I know it’s downright blasphemous to shoot for black metal that doesn't soundclike it was recorded in a cardboard box in the middle of the woods, but the tools have never been more accessible. I see no reason to not utilize them.
Hey Glenn. Thank you SO much for your insight on getting the right sound out of a guitar. As a 45 year old getting into playing I realized my only concern for the guitar should be its PLAYABILITY! I have pretty severe arthritis focusing on my hands. I don’t get many chances to get into learning how to play, but honestly how the guitar plays helps me with extending that time. I was shopping for a guitar to learn on at (insert major music store chain) and played about 6 different guitars ranging from mid 3 digits up to 4 in terms of dollars. Even though I noticed easier and harder playability styles while playing the ONE chord I learned, I DID notice each guitar SOUNDED identical when fed into the pedal and amp they had for display. Like, LITERALLY the same. Long story short, I wound up ordering a cheap Amazon guitar for less than $200 to learn on based on reviews on the guitars easy playability. Neck shape. Action. Physical feel. The guitar I bought feels VERY close to the $2800 one I tried in the store… and imagine that, it sounds VERY similar to that guitar through my amp sim and headphones. Weeeiiirrdd. I must be a newbie guitar player who shouldn’t bother playing because I can’t hear the tone in the wood and the “expressive mids and vibrant highs” from the pickups. 🙄 thanks to your insight I saved about $2k. I will however save a bit for a sweet Solar that you reviewed when I get better if for nothing than to support those that support you. Keep up the good fight, sincerely from SoCal! 🤘🔥🤘
The biggest difference I've noticed is switching from bridge to neck pickups on the same guitar. I mean just with the selector switch rather than installing new pickups. Even with high gain that sounds quite a bit different, but I didn't notice it as much when I started.
I get better mixes through my Mac speakers at listening level, especially since I don't have treated rooms.Monitors,headphones are decent,Matched EQ is a GODSEND to me...Ez drummer sounds 10x better in a mix when using matched EQ for me,not perfect, but listenable and that's me just jamming without doubling instruments. I finally did double my 7 string using the same techniques mentioned above and it was of course even better...All Logic Pro matched EQ,will get fabFilter pro 3 soon,but the logic x is sweet too!
I rarely use headphones for mixing, other than when I need to dig down into something to hear details (especially trying to find, say, an unwanted click or pop) or testing out a finished master. I use Ollo S4X open back headphones. Not good for recording, of course, but great for mixing. But using physical monitors for mixing is the Way.
great rhythm guitar mixes tend to have them sound huge in stereo but as soon as you hit the mono button, you hear that they're taking the backseat, although not by a long shot, (unless you're doing triple tracking or quad tracking with the quad tracks being panned inwards slightly) for the vocals or any lead lines took the charge. also, if you're primarily mixing on headphones and don't have a pair of studio monitors, try listening to your parents' stereo if they're fine with listening to your (or someone else's) cookie monster impression.
As a guitar player whose been an audio engineer for like 20 years, I remember that phase of mixing guitars way too loud. Sometimes if i'm mixing a show and not many people are i still mix guitar a tiny bit loud (if they're good). I just wanna hear the guitars bro I know im selfish... but seriously if you do it long enough you grow out of this phase (hopefully)
I have a spare room at home and realized there's a closet full of clothes, about 3 matresses laying around, and a shitload of old books and Lego boxes. Not looking to avoid spending money on some sort of acoustic treatment but I think all those house ítems can be put to good use. Is there any chance of a video that expands on acoustic treatment? Love the videos, greetings from the land of burritos and tequila! (Mexico (Yes, I can get away with the joke cuz I'm Mexican)).
I'm a guitarist that has dumbed down for bass in a few bands...and yes, guitarists are egomaniacs. Every time I quit a band it's over ego. The last guy wanted the band to be named after him....he picked the tuning, the songs, the lights, the set up, the set lists,...we, (the band) and the audience started nicknaming it "The Tym Show". It didn't last long at all.
OLLO S4X - effortless headphone mixing. Best value, handmade in Slovakia, no nonsense and no need for silly s/w to run them. I bought Austrian Audio Hix55 or TF they're called based on your review and that pothole guy and man.....terrible, strident shite. Had to sell them straight way at a loss
Waves has some fairly fantastic virtual room plugins that work well. If you have a webcam you can even have it emulate moving your head in the room. Kind of gimmicky in that respect. Also, the Sonar works EQ corrections for headphones work well. I have found that mixing with corrected headphones translates into much better sounding mixes across audio platforms.
I have some recording gear and haven't really done much with it yet. I'm absolutely dreading everything involved with micing up the instruments for me and the drummer. Also, mixing sounds like an absolutely soul crushing slog to me. I just want to finish songs and get them recorded. It's the songs that I have passion for and actually playing them. The recording part is not something I am looking forward to, but have to do it because recording otherwise is impossibly expensive
As a drummer and a live sound guy, I have more than a handful of times been told by various band members including guitarists "Oh youre a drummer!? Now I know the show is going to sound awesome!"
I'm a guitarist but I tend to dial back the rhythm guitars in a mix in favour of drums and vocals. I do have a problem in that I hear fizz where it maybe isn't there so I over EQ the high end with notches and dips at the 2-5k range. Always ends up sounding flat and muddy. It's odd though because I can get what I want with drums and bass within maybe 20 minutes, but I'm almost never happy with guitar tone, so I end up endlessly tinkering. I once spent 2 solid weeks just sifting through guitar IRs, 90% of which sounded the same to me - nasal and crackly. I burned up all my creative energy and couldn't write anything for about 2 months.
I'm sort of relegated to having to use headphones, and thanks to your suggestion (much earlier video) I went out and grabbed a pair of Bayer Dynamics DT 990 Pro's and they are great.
I'm curious if anyone else has this problem; I am a guitarist. Have been a long time and have even made a few bucks doing it. but I started as a drummer and all through high school played in bands and in jazz band and things like that. WAs pretty good all things considered, but an injury meant no more drums. Anyway with my mixes I always tell myself to not mix with the drums forward. Don't do it you SOB. And yet... I go back and listen after a writing or recording session and the drums are always a bit more forward. I have a bias toward an instrument I don't even freaking play anymore!!! I think it is because of the way I learned guitar. I always made the extra effort to lock in with the drums even though I should realistically be looking for the bass. My singer has even noticed it happens and she has to remind me when mixing to bring the drums back just a bit. Even on stage where I should have the guitar probably more present in my in ears I have the drums and bass more forward and the guitar blended in. I do it so I am constantly locked into the beat and not drowning out the instruments that are keeping time
@@anotheryoutubed I guess follow up question is if the "studio quality headphones" are actually FRFR? I can't find the frequency response graphs of some of my "studio" headphones.
Mixing WITH the full mix playing is something I need to reprogram my brain to do. Everything I’ve heard over the years talks about soloing, then eq, then unsolo and see if you have it right.
great video glenn!!! keep the good work. Just sharing here. I`m from Brazil, yesterday I went to Thomann and guess what???? I bought another guitar that I don`t need but really made me happy LOL. WTF is that place!!! It is THE CANDY STORE and I was just the fat hungry little kid...
When ever I hear about limits in art I think about George Lucas. When he was making Episode IV, Fox was only giving him soo much money. No one had any faith in the project. And the studio kept telling him to "Finish It Already". And we got "A New Hope".
I for one much prefer it without the room IR because that's what I'm used to. Which is why you prefer with it since you don't seem to be used to headphones. It's useful to be able to emulate different enviroments with today's technology, but it's not like you need to feel like you're in a room to make a good mix. If it sounds good without any room reverberation, it will sound good with it (and it's up to the person listening to it to have decent room acoustics, if they even care about that, which, let's face it, very few people listen to music in a treated room lol).
I agree with most of this ... but ... In a era of free music access on a global scale with unrestricted format, I think there is a place for 12 min epic djent and the likes and some of us actually look for that. Now the problem to me feels more along the lines of understanding what the intention behind the work was when the artist wrote it. "I'll make something so unique, everyone will buy it" 😅 This is a great way to explore possibilities for musicians to expand their knowledge and/or craft ( or just get it out of their system anyway ) but being attached to an outcome ( specially money/fame driven) is probably the problem. I Loved the creative act by rick ruben addressing this very subject among others. I remember an interview with NiN saying that he felt head like a hole didn't feel like a real song because it was done in under ( 4h I think? ) And the only reason it made it on the album was because he got convinced to do it. I think this might resonate with a lot of big head composers. Easy doesn't mean bad... even when it's you doing it 😂 Keep up the good work Glenn!
Mixing as a bass player always keeps my guitar tracks lower in the mix, my mixes still suck but at least nobody notices my shitty guitar playing. WIN 🎉
PRO tip: Program your drums! Double the WIN.
Have the drummer program the drum track... That's so much WIN, it's not funny 😅
Fun story, as a guitar player, I find myself keeping the bass almost as loud (if not a bit louder) than the guitars in the mix... it makes the chugging parts sound fantastic imo...
@@thatguywiththeguitar7203 I do that too, I let the bass fill up the sound for the guitars, which makes the guitars sound big when they really aren't
@@videogamecoverss Yeah! It's almost like the guitars are mostly for texturing and the bass is for the low end... least that's my approach
Number 4 is so true, that it’s bizarre how I got better mixes by simply sleeping and waking up on the next day with a fresh mind. Awesome video, as always, Glenn.
lol right, mixer you and guitarist you need to be 2 different yous
Glen, yes I am a guitar player. I am old. 63. I finally can record at home inexpensively. Thank you for all your help. What helps mixing my guitar? Marshall Silver Jubilee plugin that came with my Focusrite. I can see why you preach re amping. I record with “my sound” and then adjust settings on play back to make it sit well in the mix. Hell, I can even change the amp plugin. IRs, whatever. Now I don’t use real drums. They are from software I have but the bass and any keys are me. What great fun this is and thanks again for your help.
The golden rule I was taught doing FOH mixing was that if you were also musician, usually the guitar player, you have a bias for that instrument, so mix it to your liking, and then dial those guitars down a notch below what you would have liked. And I was taught that by a soundguy who was also a bass player. An exception to Rule No. 2.
That was the way I learnt too!
Yep, makes sense!
Absolutely! I play guitar, bass, and drums, and that’s probably why bands are always happy. There’s a trust when you understand their fears and desires.
As a bass player once I first started mixing my own stuff forever and a half ago I had to tell myself I’m not Rex Brown, I’m not Steve Harris, I’m not Frank Bello, not everyone needs to hear me front and centre 😂 Polishing up my guitar and drumming gave me a better respect for mixing
Spot's production on Husker Du's records is an amazing achievement because every part is somehow inaudible at the same time
Misfits Earth AD is another great example of Spot’s uhhhh…. Unique…. style
Glenn: “you are awesome on guitar”
Me: 😬
Same 😂
yeah brah not even my mum wants to listen to me play
Joke's on you, I'm not awesome on guitar.
Relatable 😂
Taking a break is actually a good advice. I was mixing a song for a band we had in covid times, I think I spent like 3 or 4 hours working on the song, cause after recording it, I jumped to mixing and mastering, and when I processed everything, according to me, it was an awesome mix, but when I showed it to the band members, they started pointing stuff like the compression was killing the mix, some parts were louder and then the compression hit it hard to lower the sound. I was irritated with the comments, to be honest, to the point that I was gonna send the stems to the other guys criticizing my work, but then I calmed down, slept my respective 8 hours, then checked the mix... guess what? I had to redo the whole mix, cause even in the EQ I messed it up. After that embarrassing moment, I learned to take breaks so I could do a better job mixing the songs.
And strangely, you spend WAY less time overall with mixing! One aspect of having autism as I do is this dogged determination to finish the project RIGHT NOW! So I have to force myself to take that break. One marker I use is how angry I get at not getting the right sound, either with an instrument or in the overall mix. Even a half-hour break clears the mind.
What helped me is to listen to a lot of music, a lot of different genres. And really paying attention to every little detail going on in the song.
Great to see some mixing videos! Keep it up Glenn!
Unholy HELL the advertisement interruptions in this video!
Love this Channel!!! Keep it up,Glenn.👍
I only started mixing the last few months, and the more I'm doing it the more I'm realising I make music I wouldn't listen to which is giving me serious pause for thought.
I was not expecting this to be the outcome but it's given an insight I'd have never gleaned otherwise. I highly recommend people do it just to let themselves truly become a listener of their work
Looking healthy Glen! Congrats!
I don't do metal, as my area is more synth based, but one of the biggest hurdles I had was indeed with the EQ overuse. It's similar to when you first start out and make the mistake of pushing too much volume on a channel when you want to hear it ending up with a mess. Because the natural inclination is to add more until it resolves, when that's often the worst with audio.
It can't be over emphasised that turning off the EQ and running the mix, then adding it bit by bit on the fly is a great way of gradually getting it right.
One thing I normally do when using a drum machine (such as the Elektron Model:Samples) is bang in my rhythm track, get it feeling right, and when it comes to time to add it to the mix I start with just the bass drum, and add each part going up through the range, EQing on the fly to make them stand out individually. Of course you need to be careful not to have it so that it swamps everything else in your mix, but it's for me by far the quickest route to get up and running.
I've recently learned there are quite a few musicians from more extreme metal subgenres (specifically black metal) that also love and even produce synth music. Turns out, metal composition works really well with synths in the same way that classical compositions work with metal instrumentation. I recently subscribed to a someone by the name of BLAIDD here on UA-cam who makes synthwave covers of metal tracks. You should check him out. Might be right up your alley.
@@trajectoryunown You're right - there's often crossovers as that's one major I watch Glenn. It always pays to get as broad a base as you can.
And thanks for the recommendation but no thanks. I truly cannot stand metal or anything like that. I'm more for classic rock and British indie music as I'm an old git.
@@MartonKovac-Tikmajer-xk1qh I don't need to as I use hardware. I don't particularly like using software. Not accessible enough for me, plus it ain't what I'm used to.
@@MartonKovac-Tikmajer-xk1qh Plus that's not really the sound I'm looking for at all.
Come on, that wasn't bad. It had character.
I don't know why anyone would edit while isolating one instrument and not listening the whole thing , awesome video Glenn
Yeah, that is absolutely something that guitar player mixers like myself do. Luckily I learned about that one pretty early.
Well, it depends on what and why you are editing, to be able to make a proper choice on that... right? Yes!
There's times for everything. EQing a guitar without the mix going is pretty silly though.
Great video as usual and a nice Hesu cab in the background. Cheers from Poland 🤘🍻🍃
@7:55 Yes, that sound like "ass" to me. Set up: High end sound card into high end Logitec 5.1 with Dolby turned on. But, your mileage may vary and I have crap ears from 30 years in industry.
I've been mixing on the Slate VSX headphones and it's been a game changer.
Ironically the main complaint I had about my song "Torn Apart" was that it was too short at a mere 2 min 18, I might be okay on that point. I know on this one the drums are lower in the mix, however that was a deliberate choice. Great video as always
there's no such thing as a guitar player anymore Glen. It's now guitar player, bass player, singer, drum programmer and producer.
I Appreciate You Glen So MUCH. Enjoy ALL your Takes on Guitar, Recording and LIFE !
On format limiting run times. Do you have any thoughts on setting limits on yourself, to boost creativity? limits on track count or releasing a track a month etc.?
That dearVR plugin looks awesome! For sure going to check that out!
Dear VR is incredible. Love that software. Gotta get me some open back headphones at one point, but the dear VR is great for now.
1. Waves has an abbey road headphone sim that sounds great. Worth a listen.
2. Your vocalist is key. Bad vocals, buried vocals, thin vocals, nonsensical lyrics, and you can have the heaviest riff in the world. No one cares.
3. When i mix vocals, i make their volume generally the same level as the snare hit.
4. AUTOMATE….. if your rhythms are the same volume throughout your guitar solos; you’re gonna have a fight on your hands. 1-2db is all you need.
5. Bass….bass….bass… you want your guitars to sound heavier? Burn your copy of …and justice for all, and get a great bass tone.
6. Songwriters!! Look into pond5. Consider writing stock music. Max 2 minute songs, that teach you to get to the point in 8 bars. It will do wonders for your songwriting, riff writing, and composition. I try to do a 0-day challenge: write as many 2 minutes tracks as i can, one a day, for 30 days. Post em all to pond5, sell them for 5 bucks each. Sales don’t matter. It’s the challenge of writing as many riffs, beats, and Melodie’s in as many genres you can, as fast as possible in 30 days. You’ll love the challenge. It will improve your mixes. It will teach you to cut the needlessness from your songs. And, usually, some of those riffs will be expanded into full length tracks!
7. Headphones. If you cannot use speakers; i can’t due to the constraints of my workspace- get GOOD, flat response headphones. My favorite closed back are the audio technica ATH40’s. My go to for open backs are the AT 770’s. I use both when mixing, because they offer different plus and minus’s.
Cheers to all, and see your mixes on the livestream mix show soon!!!
AD
@TwistedMetalMinion thanks! I have to give credit to Glenn, however. I chased bass sims for years. CLA bass, tone knob, parallax, you name it. His bass plug in simply works great, every time. Also, his mix reviews took my mixes in much better direction, with his advice, and the tips from his community… i always suggest sending in a track- it’s made a huge difference for the better!
I cannot like these bits of advice enough! I need to print them off, I like them so much! I had never thought to roughly match the vocal levels with the snare. Both are really the center of cohesiveness.
Great tip about EQ'ing in the full mix and keeping it minimal. I am probably guilty of a lot of what you said in that segment. *Sigh* I'll have to move onto making different mistakes!
Hey Glenn. In my case you are absolutely right about guitar players making horrible mixes. I'm a guitar player but years ago I decided to quit the band life to build my own non-pro tiny home studio so I could record and master my own home-made music. I've finally managed to get the mixing gear that I wanted and needed to reach that goal including musical instruments such as a drum-set, synth and a bass guitar. In my quest to become a descent self-educated mixer, I've bumped into several issues. The most frustrating thing was that most tracks sounded awful on other devices and honestly...I couldn't get my head around this. So, Yeah....Turns out that I was dramatically over-EQ-ing every single instrument (especially guitars) in solo mode which fucked-up the frequencies of the total mix. Fortunately for me I stranded here on your channel a while ago and since then things started to get better. I'm not there yet at all but your believes, sharings and advises are a blast and golden. A big thank you and shout out to you, man! Love your (re)presentation and insights of great things that really matter in this business. Greetings, John from the Netherlands.
Great video, Glenn. It's cool to see you trying out the Dear VR stuff. I have been curious of what you would think of solutions like that now that they're becoming more common. I'm sure it's not a replacement for actual monitors in a mix room but they always struck me as a decent alternative for situations where regular monitors weren't an option. Keep it up.
It'd be great to see a video of you doing a full mix using dearVR, then playing it through monitors and seeing how you'd change things
Glen ----- Your 2003 mix sounds way better than new "polished" mixes. I prefer raw, real instrument mixes. Reminded me of the album In/Casino/Out.
you're amazing, thanks for giving your expertise and knowledge to the community
Glenn, these are awesome tips! Thank you!!
The track at 0:26 vaguely reminds me of Mute City from F-Zero
Nice video Ima have to check those headphones out!
Spot On! This is all so true, these headphones look great, I am using a sennheiser pair now which are great for tracking, but these look great for mixing, will definately check them out!
The best comedy is the truth - very funny glenn! (and informative)
Got the Drum eq and it's awsome thanks Glen!
"No man I don't want the mix to fool people! Everything has to sound great on its own!"...then they complain they can't tell the bass drum, bass and low end of the guitar apart from each other.
A lot of sense spoken. Direct.
To the point!
this is the best video ive ever seen you make champ. hell yea
Playing in bands for decades, and having to set up and run the live band sound for all that time, helped me in recording live bands. The thing I learned most, is, "All things in moderation!" Don't over-do things. Start the sound small and grow it. Don't start the sound big and try backing it down. Less is more. Trend towards turning EQ frequencies down, not up. Make sure you here the vocals first, and add everything else from there. And, of course, make sure the musicians can hear themselves and have a good monitor mix. Doing this alone will win you many musician friends!
10:48 --- That is the hardest / most difficult thing to do... rural US life, I was taught that you get up with chickens. Breaks are for wimps. Naps are for Sunday afternoons. Then Military life - only lazy people nap, don't get caught napping... you're permitted four hours of sleep, no one promised that it would be four consecutive hours... then civilian life -- only lazy people sleep... if you aren't putting in 16 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week... you're just lazy... you deserve to be poor. I'm in 50's and my body is falling apart but I feel guilty closing my eyes before 9 pm because there is something ALWAYS that must be done.
Better to get the proper amount of sleep and put in good quality work than less sleep and half-assed tired work.
Same.
As a Bassist its really difficult to record while putting in effort not to drool all over my bass
Haha. I love videos like this. You can instantly spot who it's pi55ed off in the comments. Been mixing since about 2012 now and I'm a guitarist. You can tell such huge differences in mentality by listening to them between then and now. I guess that is the entire point. If you're not putting on your "producer" hat and youre only going to mix with guitar in mind, never going to sound good. I'd argue that a well thought out mix where the guitars arent the sole focus actually makes the guitars sound better. Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.
Sticks N’ Stones! Played with them in Rochester, NY! Very cool music and cool guys
No 2 is so true. I’m relatively new to mixing, but EVERY TIME I start getting a mix close to being finished I end up needing to take off EQs that I did early on when mixing that track. Especially if I spend a couple days away from it. I’ll go back and see these wild EQ moves on the vocals or guitars that just puzzle me, bypass the EQ plugin, and suddenly it all sounds a little better and maybe only needed a 3db boost in the highs or 2db cut in the lower mids or just a db of volume. I just finished mixing an EP for a band I recorded and half the vocal tracks, and a lot of the guitars, ended up being basically flat in the final mix. Turns out all that work I did in the tracking stages paid off and I didn’t need to fix as much as I thought I did, and there’s no rule that says you need to EQ everything.
Like a number of other commenters, I, too have that 'I just can't walk away from this until it's solved' OCD BS. It can be torture, and training yourself to step back (generally overcoming the fear of the whole 'I've gotta restart this thing' can be a mixed bag at best. I try to time my work around doing some exercise that clears my head - lifting, cardio, jiu-jitsu, or hey, getting some practice in on another instrument (keyboard, kit, bass, etc). Not always successful, because I know something else will come up (generally called life) to interrupt what I'm working on. So sometimes the OCD is part of the fear of 'will I be able to get back to it with the intent in my mind before the pause?''. Sometimes the frustration fuels a creative moment, other times it crushes any semblance of it.
What I know Glenn is that I watch your show for inspiration, ideas, and plenty of sarcasm (you get my full praise for adding anything Curb in your shows!). That's what really helps it all,: being able to sling the snark and cope with as much humor as can be piled on to dissipate some of those dark clouds. This is what I appreciate about you.
Now to go back and work on my shitty pinch harmonics :). #isuckatmyjob
I love that the Sennheiser headphones come with a multi environment listening capability. I wish my audio-technicia r70x reference headphones came with something like that. You make the best mix using all environments and it's going to work.
very true, but it even goes back to the arrangement and sound choices for me , I think the hardest thing for me as a guitarist learning to produce was I spent years playing guitar by my self so I would try to make it sounds as big and full as possible . So when I record a guitar part to drums when starting to produce, I had essential used up most of the frequency space in a mix with one instrument and trying to add more parts it just got more and more cluttered , looking at the tracks of great songs really opened my eyes to the fact that most instruments parts are sparse and underwhelming on their own but collective you get a full sound .
Hi Glenn! I'm struggling with aliasing problems on my mix. I recorded with ampsims and a bit rate of 44.1khz. Some friends told me to re-record at a higher sample rate, but I don't know how much higher. Is 48khz enough to deal with ampsims or I should go with 88.2khz? Best regards!
I've actually had the opposite problem. Being the guitar player, knowing all the guitar parts and being so "used to it" and excited about recording, my older mixes all suffer from having the guitars too LOW in volume. I was so excited to hear the drums, vocals and even bass that I let my guitar tracks take the back seat. Making my mixes sound thin, weak, "missing something". I was guilty of the same bias and it still resulted in a mix where the guitars weren't properly leveled.
@@nicholasbstone maybe they've shouldve turned them lower so they couldnt hear you at all
So help me out here. I make all my music on analog tape. I just got my first Neve mixer and i’m super excited about it! My mixes sound awesome, but… I mix on regular headphones and of course bounce between those and my car. There are a couple of reasons why I have to mix this way. Number one, I still live with my parents, and I usually record on weekends and finish my mixes at night after work throughout the week, so blasting music at 1 Am is definitely not possible. Number two, I spent all of the money I set aside for music purchases this year on the Neve, I’ve never even thought about proper monitoring. So… speaker systems or even a good set of mixing headphones are out of the picture for now. Is there any way I can make my Beats brand headphones work for me a bit better? Thanks!
Fantastic video.
Makes me rethink some of my own choices how to do things.
Gleeeeeaaan!!! Cheers bro, it’s all about the tonewood, bruh!!
So *warm* much *sustain*
And new premium pickups
You’re all wrong, it’s in the plectrum
@@JerryTheVeganRockstar jazz III or gtfo lol
Yep this is why if you get a tone knob made out of wood your life will change with the added tone from the wood lol
My biggest issue is that as vocalist and guitar player, I overcompensate on trying to NOT over emphasize them in the mix that I end up making the drums, bass, and ambience/keys way too loud, instead. This after years of making the guitar and vocals way too prominent, as Glenn said. I also had a habit of mixing on $20 sony headphones or cheap logitech speakers. Now I use a pair of flat response open back headphones or proper studio monitors.
I only use solo for editing now and finding resonances and everything sounds better now that I do everything in context. Who would have thought that ha!
I've heard some of your work Fricker... And it is anything but top notch 😂
I just went to your channel, come back when you can record a spoken vocal for UA-cam and then we’ll talk about mixing 😉
@@skymoon3471 wtf are you on about?
Write music that people want to hear more than once.
Easier said than done but it’s been my mantra since I heard those words.
Thanks mate!
Hey good on you man, you've restored my faith that the over the top reaction to things is just part of the show.
Good to see you're still open to trying new things.
There are certainly cheaper options for open back headphones that still hold up (Philips SHP9600)
It really is incredible that just removing the cover on the back of headphones could make such a difference,
I can see why you probably dismissed it as just another "it's in the pickups bro" argument.
🤘😈👍
Oh nevermind, I see "it's in the proprietary software bro". 😆
7:53 beyerdynamic has a free VST that does a similar "room emulation". Would love it if Glenn does a comparison between that and the Steinberg paid product
You ever think of comparing bridge types? We know pickups don’t matter but what about if there’s a strat style bridge, or a Jazzmaster style bridge, or a stop bar, or a tunomatic or a mastery on the jazz master style bridge? I’ve seen this video of this guy Aaron Rash comparing a Gotoh tune o matic to the stock bridge on a vintage fender mustang, and it sounds like the gotoh holds the bass notes out more but it may just be that guitar player mind of “Oh it looks different it must sound different”
I still go buy a format for the most part when songwriting with intro verse chorus maybe there's a pre-chorus back to intro verse chorus bridge chirus ending. However I will switch it up and do different things like play two major hooks and make that the whole song. Of course I will keep that song that has only two major hooks kind of minimal in length. I have my guitar tuned to e standard but then drop the e down to a d so getting a song to be heavy and still tuned up that high is pretty fun I actually like it better. There's solos and some songs and some songs there's not it just depends on what I feel like the song is asking for or needs
Gotta love how Glenn talks to us guitarists and then talks to drummers like they are his newborns :)
Honestly, the best advice ive used to check my guitar-player bias is mixing a track in mono to check level balances. It really shows whats too loud. If it sounds good in mono, itll usually sound good in stereo
I actually really like the 2003 mixing
EQing advice is excellent! I use Mixbus32C for my mixes and the built-in 32C channel strips make it so easy to EQ, compress, etc on the fly while the mix is going.
This guy speaks truth ... Its exactly what I hear too, and pushes me away from metal music and when i was young i listened only too metal ..
At least almost every album i buyed was metal like Kreator and Slayer and Entombed and Benediction etc etc ..
Those where great because you could here what they sing and they didnt use timestamps in studion on drum (Time Correction) ..
That last thing is the most anoying to make the drum unhuman .. You destroy your mix with that because it sounds not raw and hard anymore but too polished ..
These days i listen too unknown bands and not metal but more alternative rock music.
And most of the metal vocal guys and womans are lame too because of the same thing, go sing instead of being dependend on FX
Tip: Buy a Boss Katana 100 or a Kemper and you dont need Amp VST anymore and you have no latency if you use the line out or a microphone or even together at once ..
Why this is a tip ? - You will make the sound on your amp so you dont have to use FX on guitar in your DAW if you do it the right way, this will save you a lot of mixing time ..
And use a quality microphone like a Shure Beta 58A for voice and the SM57 for your cabinet (Cheap option) or the Neuman TL 102 but thats an expensive one around 575 dollar but its good very good
Guilt af.😅 thanks for the help. Tough love. Eq as a group with context as a band performing as a team.
Guilty on no. 1. The struggle is really!
Love the Hitchhikers reference at the end lol 😂
This channel is the pinnacle of metal mixing!
Thanks for all the great advice over the years, Glenn. I know it’s downright blasphemous to shoot for black metal that doesn't soundclike it was recorded in a cardboard box in the middle of the woods, but the tools have never been more accessible. I see no reason to not utilize them.
Hey Glenn. Thank you SO much for your insight on getting the right sound out of a guitar. As a 45 year old getting into playing I realized my only concern for the guitar should be its PLAYABILITY! I have pretty severe arthritis focusing on my hands. I don’t get many chances to get into learning how to play, but honestly how the guitar plays helps me with extending that time. I was shopping for a guitar to learn on at (insert major music store chain) and played about 6 different guitars ranging from mid 3 digits up to 4 in terms of dollars. Even though I noticed easier and harder playability styles while playing the ONE chord I learned, I DID notice each guitar SOUNDED identical when fed into the pedal and amp they had for display. Like, LITERALLY the same. Long story short, I wound up ordering a cheap Amazon guitar for less than $200 to learn on based on reviews on the guitars easy playability. Neck shape. Action. Physical feel. The guitar I bought feels VERY close to the $2800 one I tried in the store… and imagine that, it sounds VERY similar to that guitar through my amp sim and headphones. Weeeiiirrdd. I must be a newbie guitar player who shouldn’t bother playing because I can’t hear the tone in the wood and the “expressive mids and vibrant highs” from the pickups. 🙄 thanks to your insight I saved about $2k. I will however save a bit for a sweet Solar that you reviewed when I get better if for nothing than to support those that support you. Keep up the good fight, sincerely from SoCal! 🤘🔥🤘
The biggest difference I've noticed is switching from bridge to neck pickups on the same guitar. I mean just with the selector switch rather than installing new pickups. Even with high gain that sounds quite a bit different, but I didn't notice it as much when I started.
I get better mixes through my Mac speakers at listening level, especially since I don't have treated rooms.Monitors,headphones are decent,Matched EQ is a GODSEND to me...Ez drummer sounds 10x better in a mix when using matched EQ for me,not perfect, but listenable and that's me just jamming without doubling instruments.
I finally did double my 7 string using the same techniques mentioned above and it was of course even better...All Logic Pro matched EQ,will get fabFilter pro 3 soon,but the logic x is sweet too!
Nice video bro i found it very useful
I rarely use headphones for mixing, other than when I need to dig down into something to hear details (especially trying to find, say, an unwanted click or pop) or testing out a finished master. I use Ollo S4X open back headphones. Not good for recording, of course, but great for mixing. But using physical monitors for mixing is the Way.
Satriani's "If" has a killer sounding mix.
Especially the drums. It's not hyper production or anything but the mix has a style to it.
great rhythm guitar mixes tend to have them sound huge in stereo but as soon as you hit the mono button, you hear that they're taking the backseat, although not by a long shot, (unless you're doing triple tracking or quad tracking with the quad tracks being panned inwards slightly) for the vocals or any lead lines took the charge.
also, if you're primarily mixing on headphones and don't have a pair of studio monitors, try listening to your parents' stereo if they're fine with listening to your (or someone else's) cookie monster impression.
As a guitar player whose been an audio engineer for like 20 years, I remember that phase of mixing guitars way too loud. Sometimes if i'm mixing a show and not many people are i still mix guitar a tiny bit loud (if they're good). I just wanna hear the guitars bro I know im selfish... but seriously if you do it long enough you grow out of this phase (hopefully)
how are those Senneheisers compared to VSX?
Curious what your thoughts are on these Sennheiser's vs. the Slate Audio VSX?
I have a spare room at home and realized there's a closet full of clothes, about 3 matresses laying around, and a shitload of old books and Lego boxes. Not looking to avoid spending money on some sort of acoustic treatment but I think all those house ítems can be put to good use. Is there any chance of a video that expands on acoustic treatment?
Love the videos, greetings from the land of burritos and tequila! (Mexico (Yes, I can get away with the joke cuz I'm Mexican)).
I'm a guitarist that has dumbed down for bass in a few bands...and yes, guitarists are egomaniacs. Every time I quit a band it's over ego. The last guy wanted the band to be named after him....he picked the tuning, the songs, the lights, the set up, the set lists,...we, (the band) and the audience started nicknaming it "The Tym Show". It didn't last long at all.
OLLO S4X - effortless headphone mixing. Best value, handmade in Slovakia, no nonsense and no need for silly s/w to run them. I bought Austrian Audio Hix55 or TF they're called based on your review and that pothole guy and man.....terrible, strident shite. Had to sell them straight way at a loss
Waves has some fairly fantastic virtual room plugins that work well. If you have a webcam you can even have it emulate moving your head in the room. Kind of gimmicky in that respect. Also, the Sonar works EQ corrections for headphones work well. I have found that mixing with corrected headphones translates into much better sounding mixes across audio platforms.
I have some recording gear and haven't really done much with it yet. I'm absolutely dreading everything involved with micing up the instruments for me and the drummer. Also, mixing sounds like an absolutely soul crushing slog to me. I just want to finish songs and get them recorded. It's the songs that I have passion for and actually playing them. The recording part is not something I am looking forward to, but have to do it because recording otherwise is impossibly expensive
As a drummer and a live sound guy, I have more than a handful of times been told by various band members including guitarists "Oh youre a drummer!? Now I know the show is going to sound awesome!"
I'm a guitarist but I tend to dial back the rhythm guitars in a mix in favour of drums and vocals. I do have a problem in that I hear fizz where it maybe isn't there so I over EQ the high end with notches and dips at the 2-5k range. Always ends up sounding flat and muddy.
It's odd though because I can get what I want with drums and bass within maybe 20 minutes, but I'm almost never happy with guitar tone, so I end up endlessly tinkering.
I once spent 2 solid weeks just sifting through guitar IRs, 90% of which sounded the same to me - nasal and crackly. I burned up all my creative energy and couldn't write anything for about 2 months.
What amp/sim are you running?
I'm sort of relegated to having to use headphones, and thanks to your suggestion (much earlier video) I went out and grabbed a pair of Bayer Dynamics DT 990 Pro's and they are great.
I'm curious if anyone else has this problem; I am a guitarist. Have been a long time and have even made a few bucks doing it. but I started as a drummer and all through high school played in bands and in jazz band and things like that. WAs pretty good all things considered, but an injury meant no more drums. Anyway with my mixes I always tell myself to not mix with the drums forward. Don't do it you SOB. And yet... I go back and listen after a writing or recording session and the drums are always a bit more forward. I have a bias toward an instrument I don't even freaking play anymore!!! I think it is because of the way I learned guitar. I always made the extra effort to lock in with the drums even though I should realistically be looking for the bass. My singer has even noticed it happens and she has to remind me when mixing to bring the drums back just a bit. Even on stage where I should have the guitar probably more present in my in ears I have the drums and bass more forward and the guitar blended in. I do it so I am constantly locked into the beat and not drowning out the instruments that are keeping time
About that Sennheiser headphone software: isnt that literally just an impulse response of different environments put in a convolution reverb?
Correct! Which means if your headphones aren't completely FRFR, are you really getting anything out of doing that? Nope.
@@anotheryoutubed I guess follow up question is if the "studio quality headphones" are actually FRFR? I can't find the frequency response graphs of some of my "studio" headphones.
Mixing WITH the full mix playing is something I need to reprogram my brain to do. Everything I’ve heard over the years talks about soloing, then eq, then unsolo and see if you have it right.
great video glenn!!! keep the good work. Just sharing here. I`m from Brazil, yesterday I went to Thomann and guess what???? I bought another guitar that I don`t need but really made me happy LOL. WTF is that place!!! It is THE CANDY STORE and I was just the fat hungry little kid...
Can just imagine Glenn producing Hendrix:
'Timmy!! how many times do I have to tell you? the guitar is NOT the focus!'
Dude, be really interested to see you do the comparison with the Mackie 8 bus analogue desk
I love my Mackie 8 bus.
When ever I hear about limits in art I think about George Lucas. When he was making Episode IV, Fox was only giving him soo much money. No one had any faith in the project. And the studio kept telling him to "Finish It Already". And we got "A New Hope".
I for one much prefer it without the room IR because that's what I'm used to. Which is why you prefer with it since you don't seem to be used to headphones. It's useful to be able to emulate different enviroments with today's technology, but it's not like you need to feel like you're in a room to make a good mix. If it sounds good without any room reverberation, it will sound good with it (and it's up to the person listening to it to have decent room acoustics, if they even care about that, which, let's face it, very few people listen to music in a treated room lol).
I agree with most of this ... but ...
In a era of free music access on a global scale with unrestricted format, I think there is a place for 12 min epic djent and the likes and some of us actually look for that.
Now the problem to me feels more along the lines of understanding what the intention behind the work was when the artist wrote it.
"I'll make something so unique, everyone will buy it" 😅
This is a great way to explore possibilities for musicians to expand their knowledge and/or craft ( or just get it out of their system anyway ) but being attached to an outcome ( specially money/fame driven) is probably the problem.
I Loved the creative act by rick ruben addressing this very subject among others.
I remember an interview with NiN saying that he felt head like a hole didn't feel like a real song because it was done in under ( 4h I think? ) And the only reason it made it on the album was because he got convinced to do it.
I think this might resonate with a lot of big head composers. Easy doesn't mean bad... even when it's you doing it 😂
Keep up the good work Glenn!